The new MBA has a 13.6-inch screen and Magsafe. The MBP is still 13.3-inch and no Magsafe. But it has a Touch Bar.
MBP has fans for "sustained performance". MBA is totally silent.
I think the MBA is the better buy for the everyday user, the MBP is the better buy for someone who will really PUSH their Mac hard.
Go the M2 MBA, the one WilliApple said wouldn't launch today.
Air has a bigger and better screen and a much better webcam. The M2 MacBook Pro is such a bizarre release
I'm not entirely sure of the point of the M2 MacBook Pro other than perhaps to appease the Touch Bar lovers out there? The Air seems better in every way except for one: the active cooling. It looks like Apple have put near zero effort into it (same everything accept SOOC)?
Lots of fake news and personal bias paraded as facts here.
the M2 pro is not useless at all and is actually better value for many users over the M2 air.
Here are some key differences between the two models, the Pros advantages are:
Bigger battery
base has 10gpu cores /$100 cost option on air which makes the air and pro the same price…
slightly Higher performance (thicc chassis plus fan cooling to keep M2 temps low for higher sustained clocks)
67W power brick (30w standard on air)
no notch
Touchbar
It would be a smarter pick to get the pro over the air for some users, the 10 gpu air is now the same price as the pro anyway so to me the pro looks like a better deal as a worktool as most of most of the air’s so called benefits are subjective:
revised thinner design, fancy new colors – coffee shop cool but no material ‘benefit’ over the pro
lighter – can't see how being a few ounces lighter than the pro as a deciding factor to purchase the air
magsafe – nice but not a must have
1080p web cam (720 on pro) – again that's nice to have but if you don’t facetime it could be 8k and it wouldn't be any benefit
bigger screen – clutching at straws now...how is this an advantage as its only a 0.3 inch difference which is virtually unnoticeable plus the extra 0.3 inch is for the notch so when apps crop the notch the screen real estate will be identical to the pro.
No it shouldn't. The 13" MBP has a reason to exist. Just because your usage doesn't match that specific model doesn't mean in terms of other people it won't.
For instance, for me, I'd rather have the 13" than the MBA. Furthermore, the fan helps sustained performance when I have demanded it.
Anyhow, I believe the Air was hit by inflation and shortages which is why we see it entering the MBP territory.
I agree, I don't understand why people don't get this.
The M2 pro at $999/1099 would be perfect but due to apples greed used inflation, chinas tyrannical lockdowns disrupting production etc as an excuse to increase the starting price by 20% when it only costs a few $ more to make the M2 air than the M1.
I'm convinced the m2 air was going to be $999/1099 but seeing how successful the M1 air was Tim cook decided to add apple tax to the m2 air and use muh' inflation as a cover giving the air huge price hike, one side effect is that now the air is the same price (once you add the $100 option on the base air to get 10 gpu cores that's standard on the pro) as the pro it now looks like a better value for power users which was never the case with the $999 m1 air vs 1299 pro because of the large price delta.
A pity they didn't offer a webcam free version. The M1 Air's webcam is far too poor to use in a professional setting anyway, so they might as well have just done away with it and dodged the notch. The option should at least exist, especially is the 1080p webcam remains junk.
Yes a large percentage of users don't use the webcam and I for sure would rather have 16gb ram standard than a nasty looking notch housing a webcam that is never used, the notch makes sense on iphone due to the addition of face id sensors but that isn't on the laptops so you have a huge cut-out for a webcam a large percentage of users will never use.. also with the supply chain disruptions and apple promoting using iphone as a webcam I am surprised they don't offer a webcam-less pro with a spec bump in ram or ssd capacity.
